


Full of Surprises

by AndreaChristoph



Series: The Timeless Charity Project [1]
Category: Timeless (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, First Meeting, Fluff, Gen, Humor, Romance, Rufus Carlin Scholarship Fund, Stretch Goal Reward
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-12-27 04:00:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21112301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndreaChristoph/pseuds/AndreaChristoph
Summary: It felt like a long time ago that Rufus first met the spunky, brilliant love of his life, and yet she'd never stopped surprising him.This is the story of Rufus and Jiya's first meeting.(In October 2019 a charity project was kicked off to donate to various important causes in the names of our favorite Timeless characters.  See inside for further details on the charity project, including how to donate to unlock further stretch goal fics, and in doing so give back to great causes!)





	Full of Surprises

When Connor had mentioned they had a promising new programmer starting and that he’d be orienting her to the team, Rufus wasn’t sure what he expected. Based purely on the grades shown to him, he knew she was intelligent - brilliant, even. And with a name like  _ Jiya Marri _ , he imagined her being a classic teacher’s pet, a child of immigrants that had to make her parents’ hard work getting them there all worth it - admirable, but unfortunately in his experience it usually meant they were boring as hell, having spent most of their lives buried in books and with nonexistent social lives. He was unlikely to find a new drinking buddy to discuss kitschy 80s TV shows with; he’d probably be lucky to have anything in common with her.

But the last thing he had expected in any way, shape, or form was for her to be a whip-smart, confident, and painfully attractive woman who clearly didn’t have a nervous bone in her body, as she kicked off their introduction by asking, “So you’re the savant, huh?”

He blinked, completely thrown off. She wasn’t technically wrong, but most people weren’t quite so… blunt about it.

Any responses that came to mind made him sound incredibly self-absorbed, and so rather than try and formulate a reply to her statement, he turned to show her to her desk. “So your station will, uh, be here.” He had to drag his eyes forcibly away from her, which proved to be his downfall as he managed to stumble over an empty chair he hadn’t seen until it was already underfoot. He was two seconds away from falling on his ass - which would be  _ so _ typical of his luck with women - when he felt her hands on his shoulder and arm, steadying him.

“Slow down, boss,” she said through a soft laugh, grinning and tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

Jesus, she was beautiful.

“I’m not, uh, your boss, so you don’t have to call me-”

“Supervisor, team lead, whatever floats your boat, Mr. Carlin.”

“Rufus is good enough, Ms. Marri.”

“Hey, no pulling that crap, if I have to use your first name then you have to use mine.” She shuddered dramatically. “Ugh,  _ Miz Marri _ , that sounds foul. Promise you’ll never call me that again.”

He couldn’t help laughing. “Fair enough, Jiya it is.” The veneer of professional rigid courtesy had faded just enough that he felt like he was finally saving face. 

_ Shit, work, that’s right. _

“So, uh, what are you into?” A half second later, when his subconscious shouted  _ Really?! _ at him, he added, “I just like to get to know the team a bit, makes work more comfortable.”

“I’ll tell you what I’m  _ not _ into.” Jiya pointed to his desk -  _ how _ she knew it was his desk, he had no idea - and the Millenium Falcon model he had sitting next to his laptop as a paperweight. 

“Star Wars? Really? Who doesn’t like Star Wars?”

At that she hoisted her messenger bag up to point at the button pinned to the front - the Starfleet Academy logo.

“I’m a fan of the  _ superior _ franchise.”

Oh, she wanted to play that game? “Not very ‘live long and prosper’ of you.”

“What are Vulcans if not ruthlessly ambitious?” She flipped open the top of her bag and retrieved a small stuffed tribble, which she placed reverently on her new desk next to her laptop. “There. Looking better already.”

“Hey now,” Rufus laughed, nudging her lightly, “this team needs to mesh well and I will  _ not _ have you disparaging the good name of Star Wars.”

“Pretty sure the prequels did that all on their own.”

A loud laugh burst out of him, but he was quick to disguise it as clearing his throat when he caught Anthony’s eye across the room. 

Then the bastard gave him a knowing smirk.

Rufus spent the next hour giving her a tour through the warehouse to the various stations - the building platform, the flight simulator, the ever-important coffee lounge - and as each minute passed at her side, he debated more and more whether it would be creepy to ask her out for a drink after work on her first day.

Thankfully he was saved from his inner turmoil when Anthony suggested at the end of the day that the team go for post-work beers, both as an ice breaker for those new to the department and also because they’d worked so hard, a blatant lie if Rufus ever heard one - they’d had a break yesterday solely for an impromptu Mario Kart competition - and it was made only more obvious by Anthony shooting him a surreptitious wink. When the hell had a grey haired father of two become his wingman anyway? Oh, how the mighty had fallen.

He was two seconds away from offering Jiya a ride when Scott beat him to it. Thankfully it also meant Scott was the one turned down when she gestured instead to a tiny yellow Vespa tucked away in the corner of the parking garage (he tried not to take too much glee in the look on Scott’s face as he was shot down - the guy was just such a  _ douchebag _ ).

The team (sans Scott and his wounded pride, thank god) ended up at their usual hangout spot - Gilroy’s on main - and Rufus hovered briefly beside his car, debating if it would be weird to wait outside for her or whether it would be more rude to just go inside and assume she’d find her way, when he heard the whine of the vespa’s engine drawing close.

“How did you manage to arrive at the same time as me?” Jiya asked as she tugged her helmet off and clipped it to the Vespa. He spotted the Wonder Woman logo on the back of it and had a sudden uncomfortable flutter in his stomach.

Rufus smiled, his nerves back in full force, and shrugged, not wanting to admit he’d been waiting. “Ran into traffic, I guess.” He darted forward quickly as she put her hand on the door to the bar and pulled it open for her - only to end up holding it while five other patrons left before she could enter, because  _ of course _ .

But she laughed. That was a good sign, at least.

Rufus pulled her seat out, hoping he wasn’t being too forward with his overtures, and quickly deflected from the awkwardness by offering to buy the group the first round. Once all the usuals had rattled off their orders (craft beers for everyone, no surprise there, typical Silicon Valley hipsters), he turned to Jiya, the lone woman in their posse. “And for the lady?”

She arched a challenging eyebrow. “Whiskey, straight, with a single ice cube.”

“Uh.” Shit, he couldn’t tell whether she was serious or not. “Really?”

The straight face only lasted a few seconds. “No,” she said, laughing, “not even remotely true. I’ll have a pear cider.”

“Good choice.”

He maneuvered back to the table several minutes later with far too many drinks in hand and a harried waitress trailing after him with the rest. He made sure to set the beers down first before handing off Jiya’s cider, into which he had managed to sneak a single maraschino cherry (not that he knew whether she liked them or not, but they were sweet, she liked sweet drinks, and he was a betting man). 

The gamble paid off as she grinned and immediately popped the cherry into her mouth. He didn’t realize he was staring until she looked directly at him and again arched an eyebrow - but just as he looked away, embarrassed, he caught the tail end of a wink aimed his way.

The usual group small talk distracted him long enough to recover, until a song came on that made her perk up and shriek, abruptly drawing the attention of the whole table.

“Come on, this is my jam!” 

The group of men stared at each other for a moment before shrugging and trailing after Jiya as she made her way to the dance floor. Rufus opted to stay seated at the table - he’d never been great at dancing, and he sure as shit wasn’t going to attempt it in front of a girl he liked - but quickly discovered he had no choice, as Jiya reappeared from out of nowhere and snatched his free hand. “You’re not getting out of this either, buddy.”

“Wait, hang on, I can’t-”

“Don’t care!” she brightly chirped as she dragged him along behind her to the dance floor, where his other co-workers were currently making asses of themselves to the delight of everyone around them.

Rufus bobbed slightly to the music, earning a look from Jiya as she realized he hadn’t been joking about his dance skills (or lack thereof), and he wished for a moment the earth would swallow him whole rather than subject him to this.

At least, he felt that way right up until Jiya tugged him to an open space on the dance floor with her before launching into a series of godawful dance moves, starting with the sprinkler, of all things. Taking her lead, he then launched into a pop-and-lock robot that looked utterly ridiculous, but still managed to make her laugh.

After several more relaxed hours of drinks interspersed with dancing, the group stumbled out of the bar. The rest of the team waved goodbye as they dispersed toward their various vehicles (or cabs, depending on the amount of drinks they’d indulged in), leaving Jiya and Rufus standing alone on the sidewalk in front of the bar.

“So, uh. You okay to get home?”

Jiya looked up at him, ever so slightly glassy-eyed, and smiled. “I can get a cab, no worries.”

For once his one-and-done rule for post-work drinks had served him well. “Not a chance. Save your hard-earned pennies. I’ll give you a ride.”

“Oh!” He wasn’t sure, but it looked a lot like she was blushing. “Thanks, I can… I can give you gas money.”

“No point as I will politely decline.”

“Oh come on! I can’t just bum a free ride.”

“You can pay me back later.” He held the passenger door open as she clumsily slid into the car. The drive to her place took longer than it should have, as she struggled with directions thanks to her fuzzy mental state, but they eventually made it to the tiny apartment building just beyond the outskirts of downtown. 

“So,” Rufus said, glancing up at the human silhouette in the window above, “either you’ve got a break-in, or your boyfriend is gonna have a lot of questions about how you got home.”

Jiya snorted. “Sure. Because a girl in her 20s having a roommate in San Francisco is just a crazy thought, right?”

He tried not to let that get his hopes up too much, and was able to keep his face mostly impassive, though he did have to look away briefly to hide the smile tugging at his lips. “Well, hopefully she’s not too annoyed at how late you’re coming home.”

Jiya smiled, eyes mischievous. “He doesn’t tend to mind, he stays up pretty late.”

Before Rufus could formulate a response, Jiya slipped her arms clumsily around him for a classic drunk-girl-hug. And before he could formulate a response to  _ that _ , Jiya threw open the door and dashed out of the car, dragging her button-covered bag along with her and shouting a brief, “Thanks for the ride, boss!” before she disappeared through the doors to the lobby.

* * *

The following morning, while parking his car, Rufus noticed the yellow Vespa immediately. His suspicions were confirmed as he entered the lab and spotted Jiya - a severely hungover Jiya, from the looks of things, as she was huddled over her computer with her legs crossed under her and the hood of her sweater pulled up over her hair.

Then again, the speed with which she was tearing through her first assigned task was enough to put him to shame, so maybe she wasn’t as hungover as he thought.

“Hey,” Rufus called, settling in at his own desk. “Good morning.”

It took her a second to notice someone had spoken, and she tugged her hood back as she looked over at him. “Hm?”

“I, uh, was just… that is, uh.” His hard-earned confidence from the night before fizzled out like a dying star immediately. “... was just saying… good morning.”

Before he could go through a full flashback to high school nightmares (he was two seconds from making sure he’d worn pants to work that day), Jiya finally blinked and smiled in return. “Sorry, I get pretty hyper focused when I’m working. Morning!”

She turned back to her computer quickly, signalling the end of their conversation, and Rufus turned to type in his login credentials, disheartened at the lackluster response.

But six hours later (having only stood up a handful of times to take a bathroom break before getting back to it), Rufus was reading his screen so intently he failed to notice the Red Bull hovering in the air next to his monitor, dangling from an outstretched hand that had a snake ring coiled around one finger. He looked blankly at the can, then up at the individual gifting it to him.

“Thought you could use some fuel.”

“Oh, uh… thanks.” He cracked the top of the can and took a quick swig, then smiled. Satisfied, Jiya headed back to her desk, managing to miss the look on Rufus’s face as he looked down at the can in his hand.

He didn’t have the heart to tell her he hated energy drinks, and it would be four more years of daily energy drinks before he finally admitted it to her.

The resulting bout of laughter from her was not exactly the reaction he’d expected.

“Rufus! I hated them too, I just got them because I thought you loved them so much!” She tried and failed to reign in her giggling. “We could have had a downpayment saved for a house by now with that amount of money!”

And four hours after that, laying in bed with her smaller frame snuggled up against his chest, the implication of her words hit him, and he nuzzled his face into her hair, smiling. This girl - snoring softly, drooling onto his t-shirt, and so utterly beautiful - would never stop surprising him.

**Author's Note:**

> Donate to the fund here to unlock further fics! https://www.mightycause.com/story/Gddmig
> 
> For October - December 2019, the Rufus Carlin Scholarship Fund is in honor of our favorite pilot and computer geek, Rufus Carlin, with all donations going directly to NACME (National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering). Just as Connor Mason gave Rufus the opportunity to do great things that he wouldn't have had otherwise, so we as Timeless fans want to honor our favorite show by helping NACME help the Rufuses, Jiyas, and Connors of the real world. 
> 
> The Timeless Charity Project was founded by a group of passionate Timeless fans who wanted to overcome all divisive elements of fandom simply to give back to great causes inspired by our love for this show. We come from a variety of backgrounds (and shipping preferences), working toward a common goal - making our present timeline a better place for all. In light of this, the authors of these works have chosen to remain anonymous for the time being, so as to keep the focus on the charity fund and the works themselves.


End file.
